Day 1 - Thursday

"Are you comfortable?", the man in his late forties asked for the fourth time in the past hour.

"I am, uncle", Jeongyeon smiled, "Thank you again for doing this for me".

"It's nothing, kid. And besides, I'm the one who's gaining something here in exchange for just a drive."

"A seven hour drive", Jeongyeon corrected, ending with a light chuckle. Her uncle just brushed it off and returned a small laugh of his own.

They were coming from the center of Busan and their destination, Seongpa, Seoul.

Jeongyeon had lived in Busan for the past five years when she had just graduated from primary school. They had to move from Seoul when her father got transferred there and was assigned to be the head chef at a well known Korean restaurant in Busan. Being a minor, the Yoo family could not risk leaving Jeongyeon alone in the city. They had no family living in the area at the time. Her uncle had only moved and set up shop a few months after they have left.

She hated the idea of leaving, putting up a fight with her parents before finally succumbing to an ultimatum of "hating her forever" if she doesn't come quietly. She was young and gullible back then and she just couldn't bear the thought of her family hating her. Thinking back now, she realizes how stupid she was for losing like a total kid back then.

Now, after her second year of high school, she had just turned 18. Close to being of Korean legal age, she requested her family to let her continue her studies back in Seoul. Her parents were very understanding and decided to let her. She was also very insistent that she be driven there instead of taking a plane or train, claiming she wanted to feel the wind on her face, soaring through the streets with an open window. They called her uncle to fetch her in Busan and help her move to Seoul in exchange for her working part time for her uncle at his local Korean Japanese restaurant, which Jeongyeon had no problem agreeing to. She likes food, therefore she likes to cook, in her logic. She wanted to work part time too even though her family is rich enough to support her until college, declining saying that a place to stay and tuition was more than enough and wanted to make her own allowance.

She misses her friends. She had formed a tight bond with her classmates and neighbours since she was in her first grade of primary school. It was a group of four, all from the same neighbourhood.

Nayeon is the eldest of the four, only months older than Jeongyeon, and her closest friend. They first got to know each other on the first day of primary school, being assigned together as seatmates. Their establishment has one of those two-in-one students to a table, and to make matters better, or for worse, the school lets you be in the same section all throughout their primary school. Jeongyeon practically grew up with Nayeon literally beside her, and they lived only a few houses apart in the same block too. They bickered a lot, like most of time, but never had a serious fight and that only tightened their friendship further.

Jihyo, the self-proclaimed leader of the group and how she likes to remind everyone "You guys would be dead without me", is a year younger than the two. They met her in their neighbourhood family park that houses a small playground for the kids. Jeongyeon had this crazy idea that it was more fun to go down the slide while sitting backwards. It was indeed thrilling than normal. Nayeon attempted the same. But as one could guess it, she had no control of her balance resulting in countless backward somersaults through her entire trip down. It was amazing how she managed to roll her way down in a straight line and avoided falling off the edges, at least she had some sort of balance, but at the same time it was terrifying how the sounds were brutally loud as she snowballed her way to the ground. Like any normal kid of age eight, Nayeon sat upright with both legs spread flat on the dirt as she cried her way through the pain. Jeongyeon stood there in guilt and was on the brink of crying herself, looking around for a grown up for help.

Fortunately, there was one. A female that looked like she was in her early thirties was accompanying her daughter on a nearby swing when the events took place. She rushed towards Nayeon and did a small check up, asking her some questions in the process. After she was done, she smiled like a loving mother would at Nayeon and told her that she wasn't seriously injured, just a few scratches and maybe a small bruise that will pop out in a couple of hours. They later found out she was a really busy doctor, playing and spending what little time she could afford with her only daughter. She beckoned her kid to come over to them and told her to "Look after them", while she gets her car to drop them off their places.

"Hi! I'm Jihyo", the kid said. She eyes Nayeon, who has dialled down her crying into sniffles by then, and said with a straight face, "You two are stupid".

Jeongyeon gave her an offended stink-eye while Nayeon was about to cry again for calling her a 'bad name'. That was, until Jihyo spoke again.

"Good thing my mom told me to look after you."

And she did. The next year she unknowingly managed to enter the same school as the two, bumping into each other during lunch break with her first greeting being, "Hey! It's the two sliding idiots!", and a huge grin plastered on her face. The bickering duo became a bickering trio since then especially after finding out that Jihyo lived only a couple of blocks away from them.

The last person to be added to their group was Chaeyoung, who was younger than Jihyo by a year. It was just a few months after Jihyo attached herself to Jeongyeon and Nayeon when a single mom and her only daughter moved next door to Jeongyeon's place. The first thing that mother did after settling in was to ask the Yoo's if she can leave her kid with them every now and then.

Apparently, the mother is a childhood friend of Jeongyeon's own mom and a famous wildlife photographer. It's an occupation that requires constant moving around the country, and later around the world. But she didn't want to hinder her daughter's social life and education. She decided to leave Chaeyoung in the hands of the Yoo family when she was about to start her first year in primary school, promising to visit at least twice a year.

Jeongyeon felt really bad for Chaeyoung, being alone without a family, and decided to be her older sister then and there. Unfortunately, seven year old Chaeyoung thought for a whole year that Jeongyeon was a boy and called her hyung the whole time. When she eventually found out that 'he'